Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
People and society
A nation of immigrants since the 19th
century, Argentina is today a cultural
melting pot comprising people of Italian,
Spanish, Jewish, and French ancestry.
Buenos Aires's flamboyant, confident
residents, the porteños, enjoy many of
the same luxuries and suffer the same
stresses as the residents of any major
world city. Their city also has certain
unique characteristics of its own, such as
the enduring melodrama of tango, the
booming gastronomic scene, and the
insomniac nightlife. Porteños often refer
to their ring road, Avenida General Paz, as
if it were some kind of frontier, and the
less-traveled urban working classes are
wont to imagine the provincial heartland
as a somewhat untamed, impenetrable,
and exotic periphery.
However, those who do venture out of
the city limits are often charmed by the
myriad pleasures of the interior. In the
small towns of Misiones, Chaco, and
Corrientes, village life goes on much as it
has done for 200 years, with locals gather-
ing at the bar in the plaza, and the year-
round rhythms of work and family life
broken only by major fiestas. In the
Andean plains of the Northwest, vestiges
of pre-Columbian life still remain, with
A brightly painted café in Caminito, La Boca
native residents and mestizos (people of
mixed European and indigenous ancestry)
still playing the panpipes and flutes and
wearing ponchos. Far south in Patagonia,
visitors will be surprised to meet des-
cendants of Welsh and German settlers.
An essential bonhomie and zest for life
have always endured in the Argentinian
soul. For the visitor, it is easy to enjoy the
endearing qualities of this colorful and
thrilling nation, its abundant wildlife, vast
landscapes, and friendly people.
An indigenous ceremony taking place in the Neuquén province
